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I was looking to start an e-zine focusing on Java and JavaScript, but had no clue how to get started! I already have a Java site which is getting ample traffic (over 30,000 pageviews a month and growing).

What services are there to get my E-Zine off the ground? And how do I create a title which no one has used before for the E-Zine?

You could always use a combination. So put your domain name in your ezine but something else too. For example my website is called Gib-Onlien Dot COM and my ezine is called The Gib-Onlien Bulletin. I know I know not very imaginative but my ezine is small because it is quite specialised.

I recommend the latter if your list is still fairly small, and the former if it's larger (say, over 500 or so)...I think both can handle it, but I find the first to be a bit more reliable. MailMachine, however, seems easier to use.

I know that it's real easy to use the "hosted" mailing list services like Listbot, Topica, etc. but you only want to do that until you have a couple hundred subscribers at most. I'm still on Listbot with WSPC until the re-launch, but that's as far as I'm going with it.

If you have the wherewithal to do it, put together your own newsletter subscription forms & tracking on your server, and use a professional mailing program to send them out. Mailloop or Mach5 are both good, and let you merge in variable data, like people's names. Mach5 Mailer is a lot less expensive.

If anyone ever offers a free, remotely-hosted list management service that lets the list owner mix in simple variable data (like adding the recipient's first name to the subject) they'll get my newsletter. Until then, I'm going to mail them out myself.

People respond better to personalized messages. If you're only mailing to 7 people it won't hurt you much, but a personalized e-zine going to 200 people will be worth a lot more traffic than a Topica e-zine going to the same people.